PPR: an "HOME-made" CSR policy

With its policy commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility now dating back more than a decade, PPR works each day to mobilise and bring together all its employees around one major aim: developing the Group’s CSR approach. Today, the logical focus of this mobilisation can be seen in the backing given to the film HOME.

 

PPR’s principle aim supporting HOME is to reach as many people as possible. Every single step is essential, and everything that can be done by a company the size of PPR to reduce its impact on the environment is important, but the problem is unfortunately part of a wider issue. Every single one of us must take action to get things moving forward, and nothing is more effective than the power of images!

Fostering a collective consciousness while improving oneself

For the Group, this project also dovetails with the desire to mobilise its 88,000 employees around a single unifying project. The role of PPR as a company is therefore twofold: to foster a collective consciousness while improving oneself. Far from claiming its position is beyond reproach, the Group looks each day for new ways to progress. After all, even if the will is there, PPR is well aware that there is still some way to go.

Therefore, quite apart from increasing awareness, the Group is striving to fulfil the role of responsible actor, making its own the famous saying: “prevention is better than cure”.
Proof of this can be seen in actions developed over recent years, especially the definition of 7 key challenges matching the values of the Group and its brands. It is a list of clear CSR practices that the Group aims to further improve over the coming years. The program includes integrating CSR criteria into the choice of suppliers; restricting transport CO2 emissions; reducing the environmental impact of the Group's shops; and promoting responsible products. These initiatives are far from simple token gestures issued for the sake of an easy conscience, and are founded on the deep convictions of the Group and on its desire to adapt its systems to the needs of today’s world.

 

A first in the history of cinema!

The financial backing PPR is giving the film HOME means it will enjoy the kind of distribution that has never been seen before: it will be almost free of charge, with screenings globally, and will be released simultaneously on all media formats (DVD, cinema, television, internet, open-air screenings) on the same day, June 5th 2009, which is also World Environment Day. There is also a human side to this backing, with all the branches and brands of the Group coming together as never before to promote HOME, each branch bringing its own particular know-how.
The number of tickets sold is immaterial, because PPR stands to make no profit from the film. The aim is of a different order. Thanks to the support of PPR, the release of HOME can be considered a first in the history of cinema!

While it would never presume to know better than anyone else, PPR does nevertheless show that, through its commitment alongside Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Luc Besson, major groups can and should have a role to play in helping the environment.

 

HOME: A CSR action in itself

Indeed, for PPR this is a promise of continuing action. Both internally and externally, HOME is the tangible proof that the themes it highlights matter to the Group and that its brands are getting involved. In this way, the film is a CSR action in itself. By raising awareness of this subject in the greatest possible number of people, the Group hopes to help foster the kind of realisation that leads to action and changing behaviour. The aim is not to criticise, but to raise the awareness of each individual of the role they can and should play.

 

No one can presume to be beyond reproach. This is why, by supporting HOME, the Group is also able to illustrate its firm and longstanding commitment to a policy as ambitious in aim as it is pro-active in nature.
It might be a modest contribution, but every little helps...

 

 

Photo: Thomas Sorrentino